BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR HENRY PICKERING BOWDITCH

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. Volume XVII. EIGHTH MEMOIR. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR HENRY PICKERING BOWDITCH 1840-1911. BY W. B. CANNON. PRESENTED TO THE...
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NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. Volume XVII. EIGHTH MEMOIR.

BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR HENRY PICKERING BOWDITCH 1840-1911. BY

W. B. CANNON.

PRESENTED TO THE ACADEMY AT THE AKHXTAJL MEETING, 1922.

181

KERING k HENRY PICKERING '

• , By W . B .

CANNON.

Henry Pickering Bowditch was born in Boston April 4, 1840. Scientific interest and ability were manifest in both the maternal and paternal family Jines. Through his mother, Lucy Orne Nichols, a woman of rare fortitude and unselfish ,deyotion, he was related t o John Pickering (a son of Col. Timothy dickering, Washington's Secr^'aryQlState),^ho was a student of and an authority on Indian language. On the,maternal side, alsOj he was related to ^the wellknown astronomers, Edward and William Pickering, and to the mathematician, Benjamin Mills Pierce. His paternal grandfatJier, Nathaniel Bowclitcii, was aweU-^owa mathematician who at one time followed the sea-^-self-educated, accurate'and careful^ author of "Tite American Practical Navigator,'' and translator of La Place's " Mechanique Celeste." ' The father, Jonathan Ingersoll Bowditch, was a Boston merchant, a man with a scientific turn of mind, who continued to edit the Practical Navigator, and who on the basis of his father's work published a set of useful nautical tables. J He 'was interested in meteorology^ and'if d'ccasion had been *favbirable would probably have devoted hisflifelto scientific'ptouits.'Hglis said to^^'have brbught tfp his children, of whom he had five besides Henry, iii'as'trict And uncompromising discipline. ' •' "•'••['•

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:, ; ,n0n 1 his;return to Boston there was.no physiological laboratory for,Bowditch to work in. The.tooms insithe old Medical,School Building on North' Grove Streetiwerfe icrowded. Two small rooms in the attic were made over, however) $Jid in 'them;was. placed;the apparatus which had been brdught back from Germany. .This :was.f4&e. first physiological .laboratory for t h e j u s e o f s t u d e n t s i n t h e [ U n i t e d S t a t e s . . ! » • . • , . ; . ' v - i •.•u;';n:

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AV These rooms might perhaps be better designated the first Iaborat6ry jforoexperimental medicine established in this country, for every phase of experimental .medical work was: represented there within a few years after its establishment. nCharles S. iMinot carried on investigations in general biology, J. Ott and R. W. Lovett in experimental ;pharmacology, J.iG. Warren in; experimental -pathology, G. Stanley, Hall ;and !W. JF. Southard in; experimental psychology, O.K. Newall in experimental surgery, and ,W, P.i Lombard, if.-J,: Putnam ^assisted by William James), C. S. Minot, G. M. Garland, C. H. Williams, J. W. Warren, F. H^Hbbper, and F. W. Ellis in physiological researches. [The rhospitality of the laboratory was itinbpunded; indeed, some of the first careful work on bacterial cultures ]in this country ;was /done there by H. C. Ernst. With Dr., Bowditch's enthusiasm and inspiration almost eyery .scientific interest of a complete modern medical school was stimulated. From itheiistart jthe emphasisirwas on productive scholarship. In the preface to the first collection of papers; published from the laboratory the announcement was made that the contributions were.presented in a volume,.fjiot from any exaggerated idea of their value and importance, but with the hope that by calling attention to the facuities offered in the laboratory for original research a greater number of workers may be encouragedtoattempt the investigation of ithe inany• physiological problems now .pressing for a s o l u t i o n . "

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' < For many years, and especially in his later life, Dr. Bowditch was interested in the physiology of the senses, an aspect of physiology which has since been taken over largely by the experiin'&rital psychologist. In 1881'he published, in cooperation with W. F. Southard, an investigation into fthe Relative accuracy of bur knowledge of position in space as obtained by sight and by touch. Evidence was ! adduced showing that'direct vision gave the most accurate special knowledge, with touch second, when tested by the hand which had been experienced in "

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• • ' ' • • • ' '' ' American Society of Naturalists, N e w York, Deo. 29,1898. Science, n. >., 1398, vol. 8, Noi 209, p p . 921-927. • ! Apparatus for illustrating t h e movements of t h e eye.. ' • - ! : . ' i. .-•• Journ. Boston Soo. Med. Sd., 1898, vol. 2, pp. 224-227. ' . ' < '.>.'•:•.•' -•••!• Biographical Memoir of Theodore L y m a n . ; , , - ' • ;;: • Biographical Memoirs, Amer. Acad. Arts Sd., 1899, vol. 34, pp. 656-663. • - ;;; ' ' i, ; .••' T h e m e d i c a l s c h o o l of t h e future. - •;••;•••• .>,"•. .\>. .

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